Under the watchful eyes of the two Wallaces, the NBA opening game officially came to an end.
Wayne was not the best performing player on the opening day. After all, Dallas' Dirk had an excellent performance of 33 points and 10 rebounds in the first game, and James and Artest's statistics were also better than Wayne's.
But Wayne became one of the most watched stars on the opening day, basically sharing everyone's attention with James.
The identity of MOP makes American fans full of expectations for Wayne.
The Chinese market makes Chinese fans full of expectations for Wayne.
With this combination, Wayne surpassed everyone else and his fame skyrocketed!
The next morning, many local media in Indianapolis also gave positive comments on the performance of the new player.
Indianapolis Cornerman: The final piece of the championship puzzle is in place!
The Indiana Times: Wayne will be the best rookie of this year, and Bird made the right choice.
Indianapolis Times: We have a true MOP.
With just one game, Wayne gained fame and popularity throughout the league.
While Wayne was enjoying the attention of the Indianapolis media and fans, his good brother Tony was almost driven into autism by the criticism.
He was not criticized for being autistic by the media, but by his teammates.
"Why are you so soft? Is this what college defensive players are like nowadays? Try harder, will you die if you use more force? I didn't even feel your presence just now!"
In the training hall of North Shore Gardens, Tony looked at the bald man who was chattering in front of him and swallowed his anger.
At this time, the Celtics were making final preparations for the first game of the new season in the evening.
As a rookie, Tony was very nervous before the game.
Instead of getting comfort, he was upset by Payton, who was training with him.
Gary Payton, the "Glove", is famous for his quote "I pass by you like I pass by the street in the morning."
Of course, some people now believe that Payton never said this at all, and this sentence may have been completely fabricated by the media.
But regardless of whether this sentence is true or not, Payton's characteristic of being a bad mouth is deeply rooted in people's minds, and he is still ranked very high among the masters of trash talk.
In the 1996 Finals, Payton and the old rogue had such a verbal fight that Zen Master Jackson had to replace Pippen to defend Payton.
Because Payton's trash talk distracted the "God".
This shows his eloquence.
As a rookie, Teacher Tony could not withstand Payton's criticism.
"Ah, today's players are getting worse and worse." Payton couldn't help but shake his head when he saw that he had dumbfounded Tony with just a few words.
He didn't mean to criticize Tony, he just wanted to make the rookie stronger in mind ahead of time.
Payton wanted a ring so much, but he failed to get it in Los Angeles last year, so he came to Boston this year.
As long as he can win the championship, Payton doesn't care where he plays.
Since we want to win the championship, the rookies must play a role.
So, Payton can be said to be quite strict with Tony.
Tony felt sad when he thought about how Wayne had Artest to help buy drinks while he was being criticized here.
They are both NCAA champions, why is there such a big gap?
"Hey, what are you thinking about? Come on and continue!" At this time, Payton's shouting echoed in the training hall again.
"Oh, okay..." Tony picked up the basketball.
He used to think that fighting Wayne alone was difficult enough, but now, he realized that Wayne was simply a little angel!
Although the duel with Wayne was a bit intense, at least I wouldn't be scolded to the point of becoming autistic.
That night, the game between the Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers was indeed quite intense.
Paul Pierce scored 35 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists, but still failed to defeat the 76ers led by Iverson.
The change in HC rules allowed Iverson to achieve an extremely high hit rate of 59.1%!
The Celtics actually had the advantage for most of the game.
But in the last minute and a half, the Celtics didn't score a single point and missed five shots in a row!
Just like that, the victory was lost.
98 to 95, even though the Celtics made a lot of preparations for the game, they still suffered a defeat regretfully.
Tony Allen only got 6 minutes of playing time today, made 1 of 1 shots, scored 2 points, 1 turnover and 1 foul. He was almost just a supporting role, and his performance was incomparable to Wayne's debut yesterday.
But on the bench, Tony also witnessed the fierce competition between the league's top scorers.
Only then did he feel that Payton's request was not excessive at all.
Because on the court, your opponents are often more extreme than your teammates.
After the game, Payton felt bad watching AI and his teammates high-five to celebrate their first win of the season.
The seemingly ambitious Celtics still lost, just like the Lakers last season.
Why is it so hard to win the championship?
Payton left the court silently, and Tony returned to the locker room dejectedly.
Of course, because of the loss, Tony did not receive the practical debut gift like Wayne did.
The Celtics players have no intention of doing that at all now. Everyone is unhappy because they lost the game.
I have to say that the gap Tony encountered after entering the NBA was much greater than Wayne's.
Afterwards, several reporters were allowed into the locker room to interview the players.
Among them, some people walked up to Tony.
"Tony, today's game is such a pity. If you had more playing time, do you think you could have changed the outcome?"
"There are no ifs on the basketball court. If we lose, we lose. What we need to do is to sum up our experience and then strive to play better." Although Tony felt aggrieved, he was not stupid enough to talk nonsense.
To openly express that there is too little screen time now is just courting death.
"Speaking of the next game, the day after tomorrow, at TD Garden, the Celtics will play against the Pacers. You and Wayne will meet again as opponents. What are your expectations for this game?"
After hearing this question, Tony smiled and said, "I hope both of us can give excellent performances!"
"But Wayne is a player for the Pacers now."
"I know, that means he has to perform well and then we can beat the Pacers, hahahahahaha."
After answering the reporters' questions, Tony shook his head.
do not know why.
He actually missed that guy a little bit...
※※※
Although Wayne yelled on the phone, "Tony, your debut performance will definitely not be as good as mine."
But Wayne was still worried when he saw Tony basically sitting on the bench for the entire game.
There's no other way, I can only wait until the 5th... and mock Tony in person!
This is probably a true friend.
Speaking of which, it was indeed a pity that the Celtics lost this game.
We were clearly about to win, but who knew that we would all fail at the last moment.
It would have been difficult to lose. If the Celtics had made just one three-pointer in the last five shots, they would not have lost.
But they just avoided the basket perfectly, it was so showy that it made your scalp tingle.
From this point of view, it doesn’t seem very difficult to win the next game.
As long as Artest can keep an eye on Pierce, the Celtics' fighting power will be largely gone.
During training the next day, Artest was unexpectedly very serious.
During the simulated combat training in the afternoon, he and his teammates fought against real guns and live ammunition.
Of course, Artest was the only one who didn't force Wayne, he wanted to save his ribs...
"Oh, PP is going to be in big trouble tomorrow." Seeing Artest knock down another teammate, O'Neal next to Wayne sighed.
"What's wrong with him?" Wayne asked cautiously. This time the hatred he implanted was a bit too much.
"What's wrong? We're going to play against Paul Pierce tomorrow. Those two guys are old rivals. Didn't you see him taking off Pierce's pants when he was defending him last season?"
After Xiao O'Neal reminded him of this, Wayne remembered that there seemed to be such a famous scene.
In a game last season, when Artest was defending Pierce closely, he suddenly pulled Pierce's shorts off...
Moreover, Pierce's body was still empty at the time... This scene can be called an restricted scene.
What's even more amazing is that after Pierce put on his pants, he acted like nothing happened. He immediately ran out to receive the ball and shot it into the face of Artest.
Really, he turned his face against you as soon as you pulled up your pants.
The two of them can be said to be well matched, and one is more coquettish than the other.
At this time, Pierce and Artest were indeed rivals. They both played the three position, but one was a gorgeous offense, the other was a strong defense, and both were in the Eastern Conference.
The "conflict and dispute" between the two has become a beautiful landscape .
No wonder Artest started sharpening his knife early today.
Speaking of which... Artest has a lot of enemies in this league, and there is a long line of people who want to kill him.
But there are few teammates with whom I have a good relationship.
This is the real reverse socialite, Wayne has no doubt about it.
Early the next morning, the entire Pacers team boarded a plane to Boston.
On the plane, the phrase Artest and Wayne repeated most often was: "Do you believe that I can embarrass Pierce tonight?"
Wayne nodded repeatedly: "I believe it, isn't it enough that I believe it, brother? Do you have to ask me every ten minutes?"
The teammates on the side all laughed, and only Wayne could endure Artest's "torture".
If it were someone else, they would have changed their seats long ago.
Wayne actually wanted to change, but the key was that every time he wanted to stand up, he would see his teammates' pleading eyes.
Now that Wayne is gone, Artest will have to harass others, and the others will have a hard time!
There was no way out. As a rookie, he could only endure it all silently.
After arriving at the airport at noon, the players headed directly to North Shore Garden.
Compared to Cleveland, Boston fans' attitude towards the visiting team can be said to be quite bad.
Wayne couldn't even imagine what it would be like when the Lakers came here to play.
The bad nature of Boston fans is deeply rooted in people's minds.
In the 02-03 season, the Nets met the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and the Nets defeated their opponents 4-0 to advance.
However, after the series ended, the then Nets coach Byron Scott could not laugh at all, but instead complained a lot to reporters.
"I don't know why, but it seems like those people came here after drinking a lot of alcohol. Also, they seem to dislike black athletes."
"Not only did the Boston fans attack the players, they also verbally abused Kidd's black wife who was sitting in the audience watching the game. I was so scared that I told my wife not to go to the game."
Finally, Byron Scott concluded: "The fans here are too crazy. 'Crazy' is still a relatively polite word. As for the ugly ones, everyone knows it."
This is Boston, and this is what you get when you play away at the TD Garden.
What's more, the one coming today is Pierce's old rival Artest, so the Pacers will definitely treat him at the VIP level.
The bus stopped and Artest was the first to rush down, as if he was going to challenge Pierce for a duel.
Wayne stood up slowly. At this time, Little O'Neal came over and patted Wayne on the shoulder.
"Be prepared, Wei. Don't blame me for not reminding you that the place you are going to later might be hell." After saying that, Xiao Ao shrugged and got off the bus.
Although he knew that TD Garden was a devil's home court, Wayne didn't have any special feeling about it before.
But now that everyone said this, he felt a little nervous.
You seniors are doing more harm than good.
Just like that, after a series of routine preparations, the Pacers players officially went on the court to warm up.
After the game started, Wayne was quickly criticized as soon as he came on the court.
But it wasn't because of the fans.
It was sprayed by Payton.
He finally took action against Tony's good friend.